Over 400 Burmese prisoners have been languishing in several Bangladesh prisons because Burmese authorities have refused to take them back, an official report said.

Many of these prisoners are now in Cox’s Bazaar and Bandarban district prisons, waiting for an opportunity to return home to Burma, a Burmese from Cox’s Bazaar said.

“Many of them have already served their jail terms, but cannot go home as their country refuses to recognize them as citizens,” jail officials said.

It is not only Burmese prisoners that are facing this problem in Bangladesh. Prisoners from India, Pakistan, Nigeria , Malaysia, Tanzania, Nepal , Ghana, and Saudi Arabia face the same problem of rejection by their respective home countries.

Among the prisoners, there are 400 from Burma and 200 from India, including eight women.

A prison source said the countries refused to recognize them as citizens as the prisoners do not have passports or valid documents.

Whenever prison authorities approach the respective embassies in Dhaka, they always respond negatively, shattering the hopes of prisoners waiting to return home and rejoin their families, prison authorities said.

According to an official source, Bangladesh is now facing a serious problem as the country spends Taka 10 million a year to accommodate and feed the prisoners refused repatriation.

“These people have been a terrible burden for us as we are struggling to arrange accommodation for 86,000 inmates,” said one jail official.

It is a headache for prison authorities who already have problems with overcrowded jails. At the Dhaka Central Jail, there are around 9,000 prisoners in a facility built to hold just 2,700.

The Burmese prisoners and other foreign citizens were arrested in Bangladesh on various charges, including drug smuggling and illegal entry into the country. They were tried and sentenced to jail terms by the courts.